The Writer, His First Novel and The Worst Fan Ever
David Norton (played by Timothy Hutton) is an accomplished sci-fi writer with many bestselling books under his name. He travels with his girlfriend Jane to a writing conference in Majorca where is the headlining guest. Things are pretty good, so he even takes the chance to ask Jane to marry him. Jane says yes, and the only thing that seems weird is a fan who is obsessed with David’s first book, Gloomy Sunday.
Gloomy Sunday tells the story of people who have been implemented with a trigger in their necks: as soon as they hear the melody of the song Gloomy Sunday, they kill themselves. It triggers have been placed by the government, and it is the perfect elimination method as all deaths appear to be suicides. On the night of the conference, David’s non-depressed girlfriend jumps out of the balcony after she receives a phone call. The same thing happens to a woman named Silvia, who falls out of her balcony as soon as she hears the music of Gloomy Sunday.
Apparently, that obsessed fan is a former scientist named Frank Kovak (David Kelly) who actually did something quite similar back in his day: he experimented implementing triggers in humans. But of course his studies weren’t welcome by everyone, and he was no longer funded. Then David’s Gloomy Sunday came out, and he kept experimenting with humans- making the trigger Gloomy Sunday. Now, he wants David to write the story Frank has helped create- with only one difference. Of course this time, the deaths are genuine, and what the protagonist goes through is pure reality…
While The Kovak Box is an intriguing yet not impressive movie, the story is really interesting. I’ve always been drawn to movies centering around writer characters, hence the total category on this blog dedicated to them.
Obviously, writer and deranged fan has been written before by Stephen King. Misery, anyone? But as opposed to taking an injured writer hostage, the fan in The Kovak Box makes the writer write the story he wants, and his first victim is the writer’s girlfriend
While the director and writers didn’t make the most of the potential, The Kovak Box is still recommended to Timothy Hutton fans and writers. It might while brainstorming fiction ideas. I’d not say no to a remake, with making the story tighter, darker and a bit scarier. What do you think?
